We’re there. We helped in these crises
ICMA’s international network of chaplains has responded to three fatal maritime accidents over as many days.
Source: Al Jazeerah
As the search for survivors of the Costa Concordia accident continues and the death toll rises to 5, another five seafarers are missing after a fishing trawler sank off the west Cork coast on Sunday morning.
The BBC News reported that at 06:00 GMT, the Bonhomme sent out a distress signal after it got into difficulty off the Glandore Coast. A crew of six men were on board.
One man, an Egyptian national, was rescued and is being treated at Cork University Hospital. The Irish skipper and three more Egyptian crew members are missing. A local young man on his first fishing trip is also missing. A major search operation is under way.
Rose Kearney runs the AoS seafarers’ centre in Dublin.
A third disaster struck when a South Korean cargo ship was rocked by an explosion off the country’s west coast, killing at least three seafarers with several still missing. Five crewmen were rescued. Eleven members of the crew were from South Korea, and five others from Myanmar.
Al Jazeerah reported that the unexplained explosion tore apart the front of the ship.
ICMA members The Mission to Seafarers, Apostleship of the Sea and Korean International Maritime Mission all have stations and chaplains in South Korea, at Busan and Incheon.
The passenger ship Costa Concordia ran aground and keeled over on Friday evening, 13th January off the west coast of Italy. The BBC reported that the Costa Concordia struck land almost 400 metres from the island of Giglio. Fifteen people are as yet unaccounted for. There were 4200 people on board of whom 1000 were crew.
Costa employs an AoS chaplain for the crew on each of its vessels. The chaplain routinely sails with the crew as an officer.
Our prayers are with the passengers and crew affected by all three of these disasters. We pray also for the Costa Concordia chaplain, and for Father Giacomo Martino and Italy’s chaplains who support passengers and crew and families.
The value of the ICMA network of chaplains and its worldwide support for seafarers in distress became all too evident this weekend.
Click on the link to BBC News
Click on this link to Al Jazeerah